Quote:
Originally Posted by Pat Fairbank
I'm not an accountant, but a quick look at FIRST's financials seem to indicate that the organization is operating at a $2M yearly surplus and is sitting on top of nearly $24M in cash and short-term investments.
Given that for the parent organization funding is apparently not in short supply, is it unreasonable of me to ask why regionals experiencing financial hardship can't retain a larger portion of their own registration fees? |
It is easy to openly question the organization why it isn't spending money on things (for me, it's providing sweeping changes to the way potential developers can/can't interact with data through the FMS, for example), but I think even directly petitioning the director to know exactly why FIRST both needs $24M cash on hand but can't afford to float a regional in a high potential area for a little bit longer is probably one of the most worthwhile questions we can ask FIRST.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AdamHeard
I think someone more eloquent than me should use this as a chance to ask a good Ask Frank Friday question.
FIRST is pushing transparency, I'd love to know more about where the money goes, how it's used, etc...
It'd be interesting to know their logic behind this decision when from our point of view the regional is very profitable for FIRST.
It's kind of crazy that I've been doing this forever and when a parent asks me where all the registration fees go if they don't go to the events, I can't really give them a great answer other than, "FIRST is big.... I'm sure they have a lot of expenses...?"
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I think someone like you with years under your belt playing at a high enough level your team pays out more registration fees than an average team (2 regionals and regular championship appearances) is pretty well suited to ask this question. I've been under the impression that registration fees go directly to making new fields and hiring the crew that produces the event. I know we've been adding regionals lately with a higher frequency, but a majority of the fields are supposed to be re-used year to year (which helps districts even though they're paying registration fees for fields they'll personally never play on, as far as I know). I also thought that FRC itself was running at a loss for the longest time, but apparently that tide has shifted backwards...
For ideas on how to keep LVR afloat, I wonder if FRC would be appeased if they moved the venue out of the LVCC and into a team's high school, or if the teams attending the event were subjected to an additional fee (as ludicrous as it sounds).